Information Technology and Spiritual Theology

Sense Perception fails to reach Transcendence -----------------------------------------------

A living being is constituted of body, mind and spirit. In the state of worldly bondage, the function of the spirit remains shadowed due to dormant state of the soul as well as due to the prominence of body and mind. As this world mainly depends on action, human activities assume significance in the maintenance of life system. Since the actions cannot become successful without the guidance of knowledge, the technology of knowledge and information has become a most important part of human civilization. The modern science has therefore produced innumerable equipments and techniques such as telecommunication, computers, electronic media, television, internet, world wide web, control systems, remote sensing automation, software technology etc, that help in the quick dissemination of information. In the fields of various kinds of processing, calculating, controlling, regulating, analyzing, comparing, testing etc the computers and super computers are capable of working thousands of times faster than human brains. At present the computers are used in almost every field of human knowledge. Now the question is that, whether these computers can provide any knowledge about the absolute reality? As the matter obeys the law of physics and chemistry, computers can provide information regarding various material objects under different working conditions. Can the computers predict human behavior? Can the computers provide warning against and protection from flood, famine, war, earthquake, epidemics, robbery, riot, deception, dishonesty, ignorance, wickedness, downfall, degradation and death? The plain fact is that, the human brain works upon the capital of empiric knowledge derived through sense perception. As the senses are defective and the whole knowledge is deceptive, the combinations of these two fold shortcomings influence the human brain as well as all the brain products. The computer being a brainchild of the human beings, invariably that too imbibes this inherent limitation. Consequently, the information technology may provide some limited guidance in the secular dealings whereas regarding the absolute reality, one has to depend upon the spiritual theology or Vedic Knowledge, descending down to this world from the originator Supreme Lord himself.

Spiritual Guidance -------------------

Although the human beings have understood something about the material nature, regarding the life, much of their knowledge is misleading. Living in the midst of ignorance, the worldly man struggles to accommodate himself to varying situations. Among billions who have crossed through the stage of worldly life throughout the centuries, hardly a few have looked about themselves with astonishment. Ordinary people scarcely ponder over the queries like – who am I? What is my relationship with this world? Where from have I come? Why am I here? Where is my real destination? Who is the creator of cosmos? Etc. Everyone undergoes regular changes in body, mind, society, nature, richness etc. Yet the modern man fails to know about the real entity hidden within his frame, which wrongly feels “I am this body “.

Groping in darkness: ---------------------

In spite of the achievements of academic excellence and technical intelligence, man has not been able to solve the basic problems of life. Worldly existence is always becoming a source of anxiety and frustration. The modern science strives to analyze the human system as an automatic machine. But, the human sensitivity for pain and pleasure does not obey the technical scrutiny. Self or consciousness is an inexplicable enigma to the modern science. The individual spirit can neither be proved, nor disproved in the scientific laboratories. Empiric science has no explanation to the facts that, why a man is born ? Why he dies? Why are we alive etc? Billions of men and women are living in this world, yet no two persons look alike. Millions of variations, thousands of temperaments and numberless dispositions are found in them. The disparities like poverty, ignorance, ugliness, ill health, greed and degradation are playing an important role in the unrest and suffering of the society. One has to struggle hard to supply the demands of body, mind, family and the society. The complexities and perplexities of life are so great that every effort of the empiricists towards knowing the secret of life is becoming futile like groping up in darkness

Need of Proper Guidance: --------------------------

As long as the human beings fail to understand about the facts like, the real purpose of human life, absolute supremacy of the Almighty Lord, the inevitability of divine service, the realistic way of human life, universal brotherhood and eradication of inhumanness, they cannot progress even an inch in the proper direction. The foolish materialists conclude that, secularism alone can solve all the problems. Unless the secular endeavors and technical efforts accept the guidance of absolute spiritual realism, they shall fail in mitigating the human suffering. Most of our politicians have not learnt to live like gentle persons; what to speak of their patriotism? Being blinded due to the greed for capturing power, some of them exhibit intolerance, animosity, outrage etc, by adopting falsehood, selfishness, hypocrisy, crookedness and cruelty under the support of money power and muscle power. They try to capture power by making false promises to befool the common people. For gaining cheap popularity they have emptied the national treasuries and ruined the country. Instead of making the masses patriotic, honest and responsible, they are made to be greedy, lazy, antisocial, antinational, atheistic and fanatics by the wrong policies of the rulers and the lawmakers. The reality is that, nobody can provide any real solace to the godless society. Spiritually enlightened citizens can remain ever happy, without the help of the rulers. The secret of human life is that, every activity that is conducive to spiritual awareness provides well being, whereas those acts that go against the spiritual wisdom result in suffering and downfall. The information technology should work under the guidance of spiritual theology, to provide universal welfare.

Sense Perception results in Distraction: --------------------------------------

Immature people think that, material technology can enrich our lives by supplying all our needs. If we look at the human situation, it is observed that, the human suffering and negative trends are alarmingly increasing due to the downfall in spiritual wisdom and human nobility, in spite of our technical progress. Spirit is the source and shelter of the knowledge. The real knowledge descends down from the Supreme Lord. The material world can supply us only some temporary and conditional information regarding the perishable objects. In this regard we come across an anecdote of a farmer. For the purpose of irrigating his farm, the farmer dug a large pond in the middle of his farm. When he found that, the water in the pond is insufficient for his field, he consulted his friends and decided to dig canals to enhance the pool of the water. When he dug ten canals in ten sides connecting his pond, to his utter dismay he found that all the existing water also got escaped through those canals! Our heart is the reservoir of knowledge. We can cultivate and realize the reality through spiritual performances in holy company, under the guidance of Vedic texts. If we discard this proper process of realization and connect ourselves to the mundane world through our ten fold sense organs, all the reserve of our real knowledge shall get drained to cause bankruptcy of our welfare. All the noble traits like kindness; honesty, generosity, responsibility, wisdom, truthfulness, courage, tolerance, politeness etc are the rewards of spiritual culture.

Perverted Intellect: ------------------

The noble qualities of head and heart are essential for the success and welfare of the humanity. If the academically qualified people neglect the spiritual aspect of human life, they turn out to be clever devils to ruin the human society. One should remember the saying “little learning is dangerous”. Such misguided and perverted materialists commit the crimes of befooling the masses, hating the holy souls, blaming God, criticizing the holy texts, dividing the society, driving wedges between various communities, misusing the mass media and criminalizing the politics, to destroy the social and national welfare. Atheists and fanatics are the most dangerous elements that create anti social and anti national crimes.

From darkness Towards Light: -------------------------------

In this mundane world, the human senses are capable of collecting only eclipsed material knowledge. All the material objects existing in this world are relative and destructive. Human sense when gain proximity to the corresponding materials and material qualities, they acquire limited knowledge through sense perception. As the sense organs are incapable of beholding the spiritual reality, their perception is defective. The knowledge collected by them is just like the information collected by blind and deaf persons, as the human senses are blind and deaf towards the spirit. The human senses being extraneously turned, they can feel the external world alone. They have no access to the internal abode of the spiritual reality. The seekers of truth should therefore, turn their attention inwards to realize the reality, without depending upon the Godless culture of this world. The process of devotional culture is capable of spiritualizing the human activities and hence it is capable of creating God consciousness while living in this material world itself. All the activities of devotes such as hearing, speaking, remembering, cooking, eating, earning, spending, seeing, moving, serving, learning, reading, singing, traveling etc, are centered around the Supreme Lord, which keeps them constantly in divine association. The apparent knowledge gained by the senses is just fractional information about the changing world. As the real knowledge is compared with the light, it completely eradicates the darkness of ignorance. The one who has attained the spiritual knowledge shall not have any misconception or misguidance. As the mundane knowledge is always changing, such eclipsed knowledge is a kind of ignorance. The spiritual knowledge is absolute and eternal, as it transcends the triple time and triple qualities. The godless secular knowledge is only a curse for the human beings as it misguides and ruins the people. Every human activity should be conducive to the enfoldment of Spiritual Wisdom.

Thirsty in Water: -----------------

We have understood that material technology and defective logic are irrelevant to the spiritual affairs. The technical bulletins say that, more than 90 percent of the scientists are alive today. Scientific knowledge is doubling every five to six years. Experts predict the pool of information will escalate, -doubling as frequently as every two years. Author John Naisbitt in his best selling book “Mega Trends” summarized the paradox created by this modern phenomenon: “ We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge “. It is hard for the average person to grasp what is happening around him. So much information, so many brilliant brains. Yet our globe is plagued with famine, disease, violence, unrest and destruction. The technology Human Beings have produced has partly become their “Frankenstien Monster”. In spite of all these modern devices, we are living under the ominous cloud of human extinction. This is the genuine confession of intelligentsia regarding the pitiable plight brought upon by the uncontrolled technology, human wickedness and godless materialism.

The elements of Real Knowledge: ----------------------------------

In Srimad BhagavatGita (XIII 8-12) Lord Krishna mentions about the real knowledge, which culminates into divine wisdom. The following are those twenty kinds of remedies that cure the vitiation of Human body and mind. Also they are the constituents of true knowledge. 1) not coveting any honor 2) absence of arrogance 3) harmlessness 4) forgiveness 5) Simplicity 6) service to the holy preceptor 7) inward and outward purity 8) steadiness 9) self restraint 10) dispassion for sense objects 11) absence of egotism 12) constant contemplation on the evils of birth, death, decrepitude, disease and misery 13) non-attachment (for friends and relatives) 14) absence of affinity for the son, the wife home or kin 15) constant balance of mind at the approach of desirable and undesirable events 16) unalloyed and unflinching faith and devotion to Lord Krishna 17) resort to a secluded place 18) apathy for a tumultuous place 19) steadiness in spiritual knowledge of Self and of Godhead and 20) search after the eternal bliss as the end of spiritual knowledge . All these are to regard as true knowledge, and all else as ignorance.

Materialism for Matter and Spiritualism for spirit: ------------------------------------------------

Sense perception should not be used for the search of absolute truth. If you try to search light by the help of darkness, such an effort ends in failure. Those who adopt inductive logic for the search of reality, therefore fail in their endeavor and face self-deception and self defeat due to the contradictory perceptions. Deductive logic is the right process to understand the absolute reality, in which God is realized only by his grace, just as the sun is seen only through sunlight. In seeing the sun, any other light Is neither useful, nor necessary.

Absolute and the Relative: -------------------------

The relation between matter and spirit is that, the spirit is the real entity, whereas matter is its shadow. Some people think that, spirit is anti-matter. The body cannot be antagonistic to the shadow. The fact is that, spirit is quite uncommon with the matter. Spiritual knowledge is uncommon with the material knowledge. As the matter is the shadow of the spirit, we can draw analogies regarding the spirit by carefully studying the basic principles in this material world. Our physical forms are temporary, whereas the spiritual forms are permanent. The worldly existence and relationships are temporary whereas the spiritual existence and relationships are permanent. Materialistic civilization which cares for the extraneous development is transient, imperfect and insignificant; whereas the Vedic civilization is realistic, permanent, blissful, auspicious and universal. The supreme Lord can be realized only through spiritual theology. Our Vedic seers therefore, prayed like this , “ O Lord, kindly take us from, - transitoriness to eternity, from darkness towards light and from mortality to immortality.” The worldly acts should accept the guidance of spiritual wisdom and also they should be always conducive to divine service. This is the path of Universal Welfare.